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Old Dog Learns Old Tricks, and some new ones…

I reworked all of my oil paintings in the Proscenium Series (see sidebar for original Proscenium Series, new images are not uploaded yet) of landscapes, after looking into glazing technique online. I had never been quite happy with how they came out, and glazing was a method I had never used. In researching it online I also came across new clear acrylic media, (new to the market in the past few years), that can be mixed with acrylic colors to layer up glazes. After reworking the oil paintings and liking what occurred, I headed out to the art store for the new acrylic media. The problem with acrylics revolve around losing cohesion of the binder if mixed with too much water when trying to mix a thin glaze, and of course, that it dries extremely quickly. There were extenders on the market, that keep the paint wet longer, but thinning it out would still break the paint’s ability to cohere, flow, and hold pigment. Now there is an extender with acrylic media as well as an acrylic thinner for airbrush. When mixed together these two media replace the use of water and allow thin color glazing. It works quite a bit like oil glazing. I had hoped to be able to have a watercolor-like response, and I experimented above the cumulonimbus in the layered storm front- laying down the painting flat I brushed in areas of wet color and misted water over it with a spray bottle, then dabbing back in with a brush, and locked it in with a blow dryer. There is possibility there for further play.

I reworked all 4 of the Entropy Bale paintings (see sidebar Bale to see them prior to glazing), the Bandalier scene below, and have 3 more big works from the last few months to revisit.

Thin glazing with acrylics brought new life to the clouds and color balance to the desert. At last.

This was how I left it prior to glazing- the yellow ground is mostly a product of the photograph.

The cumulonimbus now roll out from under the front, and their shadows dapple the landscape.

This before image shows how a level of cartoonishness has been overcome.

I need to set up for taking real images of these paintings, but for now we get to see them on the wall in different light- which makes for completely different hues from this image to the next (bale close-up).

Glazing up thin layers of transparent color allows modification of the background into multiple layers, and brings complexity and harmony to tonal areas. It also brought a better sense of mass to the bale.

This was the first big bale painting from back in 2009. I started working glazes with it, as it was the weakest of the series. It had been in a back hallway, but now hangs with the others and holds its own. All four bale paintings have been re-worked.